1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to psychological assessment systems and methods, and, more particularly, to such systems and methods for assessing inhibitory control and self-regulation, for example, for diagnosing attention deficit disorder.
2. Description of Related Art
Executive functions can be described as “multiple processing modules collected together to direct cognitive activity, including mental functions associated with the ability to engage in purposeful, organized, strategic, self-regulated, goal-directed behavior.” (George McCloskey, PhD, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine)
The “Stroop effect” is a psychological phenomenon exhibited by the automatic reading of words when printed letters form the word. The Stroop task requires that reading skills be overlearned and highly automatic, which limits the applicability of this task to children under 10 years of age and other individuals with reading difficulties.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a test that does not depend upon strong reading skills to diagnose self-regulation deficits.
The currently known Stroop test also relies on only one item to determine if a child has problems with inhibitory control.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide an assessment comprising multiple items to create a composite score.